Difference between Dream and Reality!
by Platonic1
Summary: They were so similar, yet they were so different. They were so close, yet they were so apart. They need each other, but they can’t admit it. Sometimes dream feels like a reality and reality feels like a dream. Yuna x Cloud... Oneshot


The infamous disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy or Square-Enix or Microsoft or Intel or Dell or... you get the idea right?

Special Thanks to Moronic Irony for editing this fic...

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**! Difference between Dream and Reality !**

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Yuna was sitting at some distance from the crowd at the beach in Besaid, feeling very lonely. She made few random designs in the sand then erased it, she repeated this process absentmindedly. That's all she had been doing since last 30 minutes. 

Although there was lots of noise coming from her left, she paid no attention to it. She closed her two-toned eyes and started recalling her past from her early childhood to the end of her journey. After Tidus's departure, tears where no stranger to her. She quickly wiped her tears off in fear of being seen with them and looked at the sunset.

Closing her eyes she recalled a certain memory she kept within herself, it was the memory of a certain promise.

**/Flashback...**  
Tidus put two fingers into his mouth and in the next minute a loud whistle came out. Turning to Yuna he spoke up. "Hey, use that if we get separated. Then, I'll come running, okay?"  
Later…  
Yuna stayed with Tidus, content with being with him, but the silence was broken when she started to speak. "If we should get separated, just whistle. I'll come running. I promise."  
**/Flashback ends...**

She opened her eyes with new hope, '_He promised that he'll come running and he's not the one to break the promises, I know he'll come I just have to believe it._'

Yuna tried to blow a whistle with her fingers, but it was no use, she knew that Tidus was gone. It was just her hope that he might return…So she tried again, yet nothing. She was ready to give up hope which was quite tempting. Her disapointed thought shrouded the young woman's mind, but one stood out the most., 'Reality and dreams don't go along too well'

She sighed heavily, defeated; but something inside of her told her to try it one more time since she had nothing to lose and so she did. She whistled...and then at some distance she saw a blitzball popping out from water, out of no where.

The ball was shot high in the air and was followed by a person jumping from the water chasing the ball. She was barely able to see his blond hair because the sun was right behind him.  
She immediately covered her eyes because of it but when she finally took her of eyes where filled with tears and her heart started beating at the speed of light. Her mind started screaming "It's him, its him!" but her other half denied it and she thought that her blurry eyes where betraying her. All Yuna was able to see was silhouette of the said person.

Her senses where overwhelmed with joy and her logic was coughed out by her emotions. The hope of reuniting with her loved one was about to become reality.

Then he spun upside down and kicked the ball, his head facing the ocean beneath and his feet towards the sky, it was 'his' trademark shot. Yuna's broken heart was almost healed to see his trademark shot. The ball which he kicked came flying towards Yuna and she caught it with watery eyes and a big smile on her face, the truest smiled she was able to conjure up..

She had learned the art of faking a smile, but this was a true smile and it was for him. She had always smiled and laughed for others, but her laughter didn't hold the cheeriness that it usually had. It was always empty and sad, but today she smiled for herself as she was about to reunite with the person she had longed for.

That person landed back in water and started swimming towards her. This was the most joyous she had even been since departing with Tidus. He swam towards the person holding the ball thinking that he should apologize her as he didn't intend to kick the ball towards her. He popped his head out of the water, the moment which Yuna had been waiting for.

After coming out of water he shook his head vigorously to get the water off his face and hair.

Yuna was just stunned to see this, neither a smile nor a cry came out of those pink lips, she froze at the sight before her.

He was a bit surprised to see this too so he uttered out nervously "Umm I...I am sorry, I...I didn't mean to kick the ball at you, Wakka was teaching me and I was just umm..."

Then he looked at her again and saw a pair of tears escape from her eyes, which took him by a surprise even more.

'_Did I hurt her? I didn't kick the ball THAT hard!_' He was panicing, his thoughts were to jumbled for him to think straight, which wasn't so good.

Yuna didn't say a word; she looked like a statue with a constant flow of tears, which made him nervous to no end.

Finding his courage once more the blond man jumped out of water and came near Yuna kneeling down besides her.

"Hey look, I am really sorry ok, I didn't mean to hurt you" '_Why is she still crying? Did I scare her? Or am I THAT bad looking?_'

Finally Yuna shook her head and was barely able to utter an almost silent "No"

Which confused him further, '_Guess she did not except my apologies, what should I do now?_'

"Umm, well if my apologies doesn't work then may be you could punish me for that" He was trying his best to make her stop those tears, hopefully this might work.

Gaining a bit control over herself Yuna spoke up. "No its not you, it's just me"

First he was confused, now he was utterly lost. '_So I am not the reason why she is crying? Then why is she crying in first place? Well its none of my business, I think I should be on my way as soon as I get the ball back, no point in sticking my nose in the matter which does not concern me_'

So all he said was a silent "Ok"

They both remained in the same position letting few silent moment pass by.

He was waiting to get his ball back and she was lost in her reverie, forgetting the small tidbit that she was still holding the ball in her hand.

He finally got tired from knelling on one knee so he took a sit besides Yuna about two feet away from her. After few more silent moments and consistent crying from Yuna, he decided to break the silence "Look Yuna, I am not good with all this emotional stuff, but it just doesn't feel right to see you crying, if there is something I could help you out with then just tell me and I'll try my best to do it. I don't know what your problems are and I don't want to interfere in your personal matter but… please don't cry"

Yuna looks up from her trance and turned her face sideways towards the person sitting next to her.

She was a bit surprised by what he said, because she never expect to hear those words from him.

Yuna replied with a half hearted smile "Thank you Cloud, thank you very much for those kind words, but I am afraid there is nothing anyone could do about. No one can help me with my problems; I just have to deal with it myself. Maybe it's all my fault, I think I invited this pain. I shouldn't have allowed my hopes to rise beyond that reality."

(Yes it is Cloud and since he came out of water his spiky hair where no so spiky. Come on even his gel is not that powerful.)

Cloud didn't intended to, but his thought came out from his mouth, "What is that suppose to mean?"

Yuna explained, "Actually when you came out of water I thought you where 'him'."

"Him?" Cloud inquired.

"Tidus" replied Yuna painfully.

Somehow Cloud found that name familiar, '_Tidus...where have I heard that name before?_' so just out of curiosity he asked, "Who's Tidus?"

Yuna was a bit surprise to see Cloud's sudden interest in her personal life, because it was a bit out of character since they have been together since last six months but not even once he has asked any non job-related question. Normally he did not like to stick his nose in other people's business, but she was too damn tired to care about that and just wanted let the steam out so she continued "He was, no he is my life, my hope, my dream"

Cloud clenched his fist because on hearing Yuna's words, his painful past came back to haunt him.

His low voice, but bearable, "So where is he?"

Tears were the only reply from Yuna.

'_I should have never asked that_' he thought feel guilty.

Yet Yuna continued "He faded away, after we defeated Sin."

Cloud had a brief idea about Sin and the history of Spira so he didn't press the matter any further. But Yuna continued once again "He promised me that he will come running if I just whistled, what a lair, he never came, I whistled everyday, I hoped everyday that he will return to me and I'm still too afraid to except the reality, that's why it hurts so much."

"So here I was sitting alone, whistling, and hoping that someday he will come, but today when I whistled a blitzball shoot out from the water and next I saw blonde hair and I thought...I thought"

Cloud continued the rest as Yuna was struggling terribly while trying to speak and cry at the same time "and you thought it was Tidus, but much to your disappointment it was me? Right?"

Yuna didn't responded to the truth.

"I am sorry" he said in an almost whispering manner.

Yuna whipping her tears once again and said "No I am sorry to worry you like this, it's not your fault, and it's just...just that sometime shattering your dreams hurt too much"

Cloud took handful of sand and raised his hand in front of him and let go of sand slowly, letting it drift with the wind.

He said almost absentmindedly, "Looks like we're sailors in the same boat..."

Yuna looked sideways towards him and asked "Huh? What do you mean?"

He started with his uncertain tone, "My story is also similar; I was in love with a girl named Aerith. We where trying to save our planet from Seph...from an evil guy with tremendous power. He had summoned _meteor_ in order to destroy the planet so our only hope to save our planet was to summon a spell equally powerful which would neglect the effect of _meteor_. So Aerith, who was an ancient went on her own to summon _holy_, she was able to call _holy_ but at cost of her life. Since then I've been looking for a way to get her back."

"So in other words you are also chasing after a dream which had faded away?" Yuna said sadly.

Cloud said slowly, "Yes I was… I also chased a dream, a distant hope… ignoring the reality. He shook his head and said sternly, "...but not any more…"

Yuna tilted her head towards Cloud and asked quietly "Have you given up on her?" her voice still crackled from crying.

Cloud replied sternly, "No… but I have few other things to worry about so I've put that on hold for now."

Yuna was confused and it was evident on her face so Cloud explained "It would be selfish if I continued to search for her on my own; she died to save everyone else on the planet. She died for a noble cause so the least I can do is to fight for the same cause she fought for, to save others."

Yuna knew this was a bad question and regretted asking it as soon as the words came out of her mouth, "Were you by her side when she died?"

Much to her surprise Cloud said, "Yes! In fact I even tried to kill her" he stated matter-of-factly

Yuna was shocked beyond imagination, "You what?"

Cloud looked at his hands and said, "I was being controlled and if it weren't for my friends then it might have been me, who would have killed Aerith with my own hands"

"Then how did she die?" She questioned while giving him a strange look.

"That bastard Sephir...I mean the evil demon came from the top and impaled Aerith through the stomach, pulled the sword out and left. All this happened in front of my eyes I wasn't able to do a thing" replied enraged Cloud. His hand forming a tight fist, it looked like his knuckles where about to burst out. He punched the ground in rage with his left hand and would have done the same if it weren't from Yuna. She placed her hand over Clouds fist, and normally Cloud would have taken his hand away in recoil but he was too engaged to notice it, though subconsciously he released the fist and relaxed at the touch

"You were so right when you said we're sailors in the same boat because I had to go through similar things" added Yuna.

"Unfortunately I was the one who was suppose to die but he died instead. By defeating Yu Yoven I sealed his fate too, by defeating Yu Yevon I erased his existence with my own hands" Another pair of tear escapes from her eyes, though she tried hard not to cry her efforts were in vain.

Cloud who wasn't aware of the full story about the summoner's pilgrimage asked an obvious question, "What do you mean?"

Yuna explained Cloud everything briefly from the start of her pilgrimage till the end of Yu Yevon.

After hearing all that, all Cloud was able to say was "He's lucky" which naturally surprised Yuna to no end.

Cloud cleared up the confusion after seeing Yuna's look. "At least he was able to save the one person he love, the one person who was the most dear to him, the one person who was the most important to him. I wasn't even able to do that"

Cloud sighed and sorrow was written all over his features, he brought his legs closer to his body and rested both of his elbows on his knees, placing his palm over his eyes, as if trying to hold back those tears..

Yuna on the other hand had never expected to see the mighty warrior named Cloud Strife in such a pitiful condition, and for once even Yuna had no clue how to handle this situation.

Moving closer to Cloud she placed one of her hands on Cloud's shoulder, which Cloud didn't react to.

"Hey Cloud, are you all right?" asked concerned Yuna.

Yet no reply.

"Oh boy, this is perfect" said Yuna trying to sound excited. "Cloud, don't move, okay? I be right back" she instructed. "This could be picture of the year, the mighty Cloud Strife in such a pitiful condition, I've gotta take this picture" as said with a hint of amusement.

Without saying another word she stood up and Cloud reacted in an instant "Hey where do you think you are going?" and even before he could finish his sentence he pulled her strongly by her hand. Just by the brute force of his power Yuna lost her balance and came down crashing in his lap, while Cloud caught her head from hitting his knee. They both looked at each other and blinked...and blinked...and blinked again...and blinked yet again...and blinked yet aga-- (you get the idea right?)

After few quite moments, Cloud sitting and Yuna resting in Cloud's lap and both were just looking at each other without missing a beat. They realized the awkwardness on the situation and as soon as the realization dawned into Yuna's head she bolted up from his lap embarrassed.

While Cloud was embarrassed too for a moment, his sadness returned to him in an instance. Yuna's checks where flushed in embarrassment of the situation. But even her embarrassment didn't last long as her attempt to cheer up Cloud had failed miserably.

"I..I.am...I am sorry" she said sheepishly.

Cloud just shook his head and replied, "No it wasn't your fault, I am sorry."

"That's nice, we both are sorry" she said trying to sound normal.

"I say enough of these sad talks; let talk about something which is not depressing, ok" she stated.

"Ok fine" said Cloud as if he didn't care.

"It's not going to work like that. You still sound sad" she emphasized.

Cloud leaned backed a bit before replying, "Yeah, maybe" hurt still evident in his voice.

"Wanna scream?" She asked out of the blue

"What? I really don't think that's gonna help" He pointed out dryly.

Yuna also leaned back and said softly looking at the ocean, "You know what? It's embarrassing to say this myself... But Summoners and their guardians are kind of like Spira's ray of light. A Lot of people in Spira depends on us. I learned to practice smiling when I'm sad, you know? I know it's hard."

Cloud nodded and replied a bit unsure, "Yeah... I understand. I think."

"Right, now let's see what you can do!" said Yuna with a bit of smile.

"Huh?" asked Cloud thoroughly confused.

"Come on! Smile" replied Yuna cheerfully.

Cloud grimaced, then tried a painful fake smile. He chuckled nervously. "This is weird!" Yuna held up a hand.

"Next, try laughing out loud!" she said with a chuckle.

"What?" he exclaimed in surprise, since he wasn't sure what was she trying to do.

"Come on, show me!" Yuna said rubbing her hands excitedly.

Cloud faced the ocean, took a deep breath, and began laughing loud, fake, painful laughs. Even to his own ears, they sounded more like cries of pain coming from his wrenched heart. But much to his surprise, Yuna joined him, sounding every bit as fake as he did. With that, they looked at each other and burst into real laughs.

"Too funny!" said Yuna clutching her stomach.

"It was your idea!" said Cloud still laughing.

"Um...thank you. I want my journey to be full of laughter" said Yuna as soon as her laughter settled down.

"Okay, I'll try by best" replied Cloud honestly.

Yuna was almost in trance as she continued, "If we should get separated, just whistle. I'll come running. I promise..." She couldn't finish her sentence as she realized that in the past she had almost exact conversation with Tidus, word for word. And the promise...it was just too much. She couldn't hold it back anymore, she broke down completely. She just wanted to cling to anything for support and cry her heart out, and the closest object in sight was Cloud strife. She flung her arms around Cloud and hugged him tightly as if it was the last thing to hold on to and started crying uncontrollably.

Cloud was stunned for a moment by Yuna's action. Although reluctant at first he returned the gesture by embracing her. '_Just when I thought I could make her laugh…I failed again… She's deeply hurt from the inside… just like me_' he thought as the wounds from his past were opening again new.

'_She just needs something to hold on to… and so do I. All I have now is a scattered dream that's like a far-off memory... I've always tried to push her away… I was afraid that I might fall for her. That's why I always kept my distance… I always acted like a guardian who was hired and didn't care about anything but the mission… The reason I agreed to join the fight against Sin was to ease my guilty conscious… I thought may be in protecting others I might find my salvation…I wasn't able to protect Aerith, I let her down…Once she left me, I lost my hope, my reasons, my light… even though I knew that she wanted me to move on, I just couldn't let go of my past… But now, I think I am finally ready to move on and accept the reality… I have gown to love Yuna and I just can't deny it anymore… But the irony is that she wants me, she needs me but there is no way she'll ever love me… she stills loves Tidus…I think…I guess happiness was not meant for me... We both are the sailors of the same boat, so similar, yet so different…_' his thoughts were too much, causing drowsiness to take over and slowly he was drifting off to sleep.

Yuna cried herself to sleep in Cloud's arms. '_All I have now is a far-off memory that's like a scattered dream… But I want to dream again… I want to face the reality, but I am too scared to do it on my own… I need help, I need his help… No matter how hard I try to fool myself I just can't deny it that I love him… I need Cloud more then anything else…But look at the irony, now that I am finally ready to move on, I can't go on without him… but he has scars from the past and I am not sure if he is willing to let go of them… I am not sure if he is willing stand by my side to face the reality… He still loves Aerith… I think…I guess happiness was not meant for me… We both are the sailors of the same boat, so similar, yet so different…_' Those thoughts alone caused even Yuna to weep to sleep, but soon her tears dried up.

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A man in his mid 30's was standing next to girl looking at this scene from a cliff. 

"So what ya say?" the man asked the female with a straw in his mouth.

"At least he is out of the depression now" replied the young women.

"I think we should just leave him alone on this planet, what ya say Tifa?" he asked looking at her.

"Yes… for now at least" replied Tifa a bit painfully.

Red XIII ran up to them and said, "We have finally figured out what's going on…"

"What is it?" asked Cid.

"The Sin was suppose to be destroyed but it came back to life, right?"

"Yes… and how exactly did that happen?" said Barret from some distance.

"One horrible event triggered that… it's called Time Compression" replied Red XIII

"Time compressor?" asked Cid dumbly.

"No… it's called Time Compression, a dreadful state where past, present and future collides" replied a voice.

Everyone was able to hear him yet no one saw him. Vincent appeared in front of then seemingly out of no where, he had a tendency to do that.

"Somehow, somewhere Time Compression must have been triggered and we all are feeling its effects" he continued.

"Time went a bit backwards in this world" informed Red XIII.

"Luckily, somehow, someone must have been able to stop this Time Compression before it got out of hand. Thus saving countless life and every world which can inhabit life" said Vincent.

"So if time went backwards then does that mean that those who died earlier would return?" spoke up Yuffie joining the crew.

"No… Time Compression simply disturbed the life cycle of the planet" replied Vincent.

"Only things that were formed by planet directly without any other input would return as it is" Red XIII added.

"Which only includes Aeons and Sin" Vincent said coolly.

"Thus Yuna has to start her journey all over again" informed Red XIII.

"So like, what happened to that Tidus guy?" asked Yuffie.

"Trust me, you don't want to know it" said Vincent trying to dodge her question.

"Hey**—" **was all Yuffie was able to before being cut off by Barret.

"You ok Tifa, you don't look so good" he pointed out the obvious.

"I am fine but do you think Cloud is going to be all right?" asked Tifa.

"Dontcha worry about him, I can guarantee ya that Yuna, Cloud, Rikku and Khimari would whoop that Sin's butt, if it has any..." said Cid confidently.

"Ya, plus there is Wakka and Lulu if they need back up. Not like they would need any but hey…" added Barret.

"You can't count on these married folks with kids" Yuffie pointed out with her hands on her hips.

"There is so much more going on, we don't have time to go over the details right now" said Vincent bringing everybody back on topic.

"He is right, lets go fellas, we can't stay here forever" said Cid waving his hand.

Cid, Barret, Yuffie and Tifa made their way towards the high tech Shin-Ra rocket leaving behind Red XIII and Vincent.

"I don't think they understand the situation completely" stated Vincent

"I had the same feeling" replied Red XIII

"Nothing is like before, this time they might not have any other option but to use Final Summoning" said Vincent hesitantly.

"Do you think Cloud knows about it?" inquired Red XIII

"No, he is clueless about this situation" replied Vincent in a monotone.

"So after all this time when happiness is about embrace Cloud he is gonna lose it all again?" said Red XIII disappointedly.

"He has found a new hope, a new light. I am sure he is not going to lose it. He will find a way" replied Vincent confidently.

They both started walking back.

"Tell me one thing Vincent, how do you know so much about this plant?" asked Red XIII

"When you are half dead and half alive it's not too hard to get what you want. Besides you would know everything you need to know once you visit the farplane like I just did" said Vincent in a monotone.

"Back to our main topic, so who is Sin anyway?" Red XIII said trying to continuing their initial conversation.

"Its not Cloud I am worried about, its Yuna" said Vincent totally ignoring Red XIII's question.

Red XIII just arched its eyebrow.

"I am not sure if she will be able to defeat Sin this time around" said Vincent after a brief pause.

"Why's that?" Red XIII inquired.

"Because the Sin is…" Vincent stopped his sentence in midway.

Vincent took one last look at Yuna and Cloud before he turned around then started walking again.

Just before he entered the rocket he said the name, of the new person to embody the Sin, "it's Tidus"

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**! THE END !**

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**_So what do you say about it? Like it? Love it? Hate it? Just let me know in a review._**


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